1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of peer-to-peer networking and more particularly to network membership management in a peer-to-peer network.
2. Description of the Related Arts
A peer-to-peer network is a networking architecture for sharing information by creating direct connections between “nodes” without requiring all information to pass through a centralized server. A challenging problem in peer-to-peer networking is determining how to assign connections between nodes to optimize network efficiency. For example, if a particular node shares too many connections with other nodes, that node may slow the distribution of information to its connected nodes. On the other hand, if a particular node shares too few connections with other nodes, that node may not be able to receive information quickly enough. Furthermore, groups of interconnected nodes may become isolated from other nodes on the network, thus causing inefficiencies in information sharing between isolated groups. The problem becomes particularly challenging when nodes are continuously joining and leaving the network. As a result, conventional peer-to-peer networks fail to provide a network membership management protocol that sufficiently optimizes the interconnections between nodes.